Time's winged chariot

You might have to click on this picture to see it, but what I liked were the yellow petals sticking to the roof of the bird feeder.


A slightly decayed and dilapidated look are part of a garden's appeal. Why is that? It must be the same idea that goes into "shabby chic," the wanting things to look aged and used, and finding that attractive.

We should be more that way about ourselves, too.

A garden has many delights and many lessons. One lesson is the brevity of life. These pansies, for example, are past their prime.


The lobelia are drooping in this pot. It's partly the advance of the season, partly the heat we've been having. Last night we had a thunderstorm, but before that endless days of relentless sun and heat. Not a typical Northwest Washington summer. We do usually get some hot, sunny days in July and August, but this year the hot weather started in June, and we've had very little rain.


The lobelia in the other pot are beyond droopy, perhaps beyond recovery. If I were more consistent in watering and fertilizing, they might have lasted longer, but with being gone from the house for ten or more hours Monday through Friday to go earn my living, I don't always have a lot of energy to devote to my plants when I am home. And weekends, they have to share with all other tasks and errands waiting to be done. However, they are a fairly high priority, just because I love them better than some other parts of my life. My deck has received more attention than the interior of my house, and I've spent more time tending plants than doing housework.


Robert Herrick has this good poem tying together the brevity of garden life and of human life:

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
1648

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry:
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.

I'm not sure I agree with the third stanza. It's true that youth is the best time of life for marriage and childbearing, but I'm not sure that it's the best time of life, period.

. . .

I browsed the net and through books of poetry looking for something that expresses what I think (what oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed), but now I have to get ready for church.